ADT Security Services Inc - Irvine

I will never again recommend ADT to anyone.  I used to have Brinks and their system was great.  It was wired and it worked.  I don't care if it's wired or not, but silly me, I would like it to work.  I had the sales person come give me a quote for the installation.  I told him what was important.  I really wanted protection for myself and kids.  Property was secondary.  He looked at the layout of the house and he wrote up the order.  Since I had Brinks before for almost 20 years, and in that almost 20 years they switched over to ADT with supposedly same great service.  WRONG.  The installation person came out and I again explained what I wanted to protect because apparently he didn't see what the sales person wrote.  So he installed it and tested it and left.  I shouldn't have
assumed I had the same great system.  So here is a list of the problems first:
1)If you set the system to Armed-Away, which means that motion sensors is on as
well as doors and windows, if you do not open and close a door, the system
"will think" that you haven't left and aren't leaving and it will
switch to Armed Stay.  That means motion sensors are disabled.  I
learned that after calling a month later trying to figure out if the motion
sensors were working.
2)The only way to do Armed Away without opening the door to leave, or an Instant
armed as the Brinks system allowed you to do, you have to do it from the
keypad.  The keypad was installed down a hall by my garage door.
 That was based on my installers suggestion because apparently you can do
everything from their handy dandy app.  But no you can not.  You
cannot instant alarm the system from your app.  You cannot instant alarm
your system by the key chain either.  So I am forced to either not go to
bed because my bedroom is upstairs and sleep in the laundry room at the garage,
or thankfully there is problem 3 that allows me to arm the system and ...
 3)Motion sensor doesn't sense motion unless you are directly under it.  So I can
arm it and walk right by the motion up my stairs that is supposed to cover my
stairs since it doesn't work anyways.  
4)The noise that it makes can't be heard  upstairs.  Those of you that
have an alarm from Brinks knows that the alarm sound can be heard by everyone
in the house including possibly the neighbor.  This one cannot. 
5)Policy is horrible.  I called 3 times to ask about the motion.  I learned a little more about the system and learned that their customer service isn't that great.  They obviously know that you are in a contract and they aren't letting you out.  I received words like "if you aren't happy with your system, it's new so I can't offer you a deal but I can give you 25% off if you want to add more equipment".  So because their equipment doesn't work like it should, I can pay for more equipment and they will be the
big guy here and give me 25% off. So I should be thanking them?  I further told the last person that your equipment wasn't working so why should I spend more money to fill in the gaps?  He said he didn't know what to tell me.  I told him to let me speak to a manager.  He told me he would email a manager and they would get back with me within 24 hours.  He maintained
his calm, it doesn't matter to me attitude.  I gave him my number and after a few more words hung up.  The "technician" that was sent to my house not to change out equipment but to only make sure the equipment was running like it was supposed to told me that they (meaning corporate) would not let me get out of this and to put my boxing gloves on to speak with them.  He told me technically the system works.  I could not believe my ears.  He could see that it did not cover any area besides right in front of it.  I couldn?t protect my family room or the office either.  He repeatedly told me that technically it worked.  I could not
believe my ears.  The technician they sent over said that I needed their other system.  It was wireless and it works.  I asked if the motion sensor works the same way and he said yes.  I told him I needed to call and speak with a manager.  I let him go.  Then I called to tell ADT I wanted to cancel and remove my system.  The lady told me that I would have to pay the cancellation fee.  I asked her how much.  She said 75% of my contract that was only a month and a week old and my contract was 2 years old.  The amount for my cancellation fee was $850+.  I asked to speak with a manager then.  I had called another place that
could install the system the next day but they didn?t want me to be double billed.  The manager got on the line and
I told her what happened.  She said in a bland, I don?t care voice, ?if you aren?t happy with your system, you can add
additional equipment and I can give you a 35% discount.?  I told her I didn?t want a discount on
equipment when the equipment I had didn?t do what it was supposed to.  She said that if I wasn?t happy with the
equipment they could send someone else out to adjust it so I was happy with it.  Everyone I spoke with was very
careful to never state that the equipment wasn?t working correctly.  They never stated with me that the motion
sensor should reach such and such a distance. That should be known.  I explained
that I was standing under the sensor when it finally went off.  She again stated that I could add additional
motion sensors on there if my room is too big. I was so angry.  I have not been able to let go over their words.  This
was a company I trusted to protect my kids. Myself.  And now I know from the top down, they don?t care.  They just
want your money and lock you into a contract. So now to arm my system I have to turn on the system at the keypad at
the garage.  Open and close the garage door.  Run upstairs.  Turn on a motion sensor I purchased from Home
Depot for $30.  And then hope for the best.  I might as well looked in a phone book for a random no name business.  I
didn?t expect this from a company that promises to protect all your stuff.  Don?t make the mistake that I did and sign
anything.  

They sent one worker. Our experience with him was fine. I think he actually came early. He called ahead, said that they had a cancellation, and asked if it was alright to come earlier. We told him yes. He left the area clean. There were a few things around but not disastrous.

ADT is constantly soliciting by mail free security systems $850 value.  I called on such a system 5 years ago and found that the system was inferior so I added an additional $2000 of equipment to their system.  I ended up having to sign a 3 year contract at $50/month.  I continued to use the monitoring systems of ADT and when my battery died for the panel I made an appointment for them to come replace it.  At this time I learned when they put the system in they could have put a panel in that I could have changed myself.  Instead it cost me $175 for a new battery put in.  Furthermore they never showed up for the appointment that was under a 5 year window.  I was so frustrated that I cancelled my service outside of my contract.  I called 3 other companies to see if they could monitor the equipment that was already paid for, however they said it could only be monitored by ADT.  So I would either have to put in a whole new system or go back to ADT.  I ended going back to ADT and paid a reinstated fee, paying an extra $10/mo,  and paid for a new battery.  A year later I have sold my house and now they are charging me $400 for cancelling their service.